Robins in full flight

Salford produced another poor defensive performance on Sunday as Hull KR ran in a total of eight tries on their way to a 44-18 Super League victory at the Willows.

The Reds went down 60-16 to the Crusaders a fortnight ago and could offer no response in the face of an increasingly rampant Rovers side, for whom Michael Dobson was outstanding.

The scrum-half scored a try and kicked six goals on his way to a personal haul of 16 points, while Clint Newton and Shaun Briscoe both crossed twice.

Rovers were missing joint top-scorer Kris Welham for the match but welcomed back Michael Vella from injury and Ben Cockayne from suspension.

Meanwhile, with Malcolm Alker - who earlier this week announced his retirement at the end of the season to become Salford's assistant coach - sidelined with a neck problem, the Reds handed a debut to 17-year-old hooker Gareth Owen off the bench.

The home side, beaten 30-12 at Craven Park on the opening day of the season, were also missing Daniel Holdsworth, Mark Henry, Ian Sibbit, Luke Adamson, Ryan Boyle and suspended Jeremy Smith.

Chaos

Salford were behind after just two minutes when Liam Colbon capitalised on a crossfield kick from Dobson that caused chaos in their defence to stroll in the corner.

Dobson kicked the extras and the visitors could soon have been further ahead had Scott Murrell's try from his own grubber not been disallowed by referee Ian Smith.

Stuart Littler was then on hand with a crucial cover tackle after Dobson's darting burst almost brought another try.

The tone was set, with Salford rarely threatening going forward and producing a poor display of kicking whenever they attempted to.

Rovers went further ahead after 28 minutes when Newton raced on to Dobson's kick, with the Australian scrum-half then landing his second conversion to make it 12-0.

Against the run of play, the Reds halved the deficit four minutes before half time when substitute Owen produced a superb pass to send Rob Parker over, with Steve Tyrer adding the goal.

However, Hull KR re-asserted themselves four minutes into the second half when Josh Charnley took hold of Dobson's pass to go over for a converted try.

Rovers made sure of the points as early as the 51st minute, by which time further tries from Scott Murrell and Newton had helped take them 28-6 ahead.

Dobson added another before Shaun Briscoe got in on the act - his try being the fifth scored by Hull KR in 14 minutes.

The Reds managed to add a little respectability to the scoreline as tries from Ray Cashmere and Matty Smith pulled them back to 38-18.

Blunder

But Karl Fitzpatrick's blunder behind his own try line gifted Briscoe a second try, with Dobson kicking his sixth conversion.

Briscoe almost completed a hat-trick late in the game but was denied by a superb Jodie Broughton tackle.